Renée Richards would prefer you didn't call her an activist. Thirty-five years ago, Richards became an unofficial spokeswoman for the transgender movement when her legal battle to play as a woman in the U.S. Open garnered headlines across the globe. After nearly three decades of relative obscurity, Richards is now the subject of "Renée," a documentary premiering Tuesday on ESPN. When filmmaker Eric Drath initially approached Richards about the possibility of making a film about her life, she was reluctant.

Thousands of characters — letters and obscure symbols — filled the more than 100 pages of a centuries-old text that had been located in East Berlin after the end of the Cold War. No one knew what the text meant, or even what language it was in. It was a mystery that USC computer scientist Kevin Knight and two Swedish researchers sought to solve. After months of painstaking work and a few trips down the wrong path, the moment finally came when the team knew it was on to something.

With at least two flus and plenty of colds, coughs and sore throats circulating this season, some Americans are turning to zinc to ward off viruses. Lozenges, supplements and nasal sprays that contain the mineral claim to boost immunity, and there is some evidence that they might do so. In an effort to stay well, though, we might be making ourselves sick. Consistently taking excessive FOR THE RECORD: Dietitian's name: An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of dietitian Ruth Frechman as Frenchman.

Dr. Irving H. Leopold, the former chairman of UC Irvine's Ophthalmology Department and an international authority on the treatment of glaucoma and other eye disorders, died Monday of heart failure at Hoag Hospital. He was 78. During his career, Dr. Leopold was chairman of the departments of ophthalmology at three medical schools, including Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City; the Graduate School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania; and the College of Medicine at UCI.

Irving H. Leopold, 78, an ophthalmologist whose patients included Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon and an expert on treatments for the eye, especially those involving antibiotics and chemotherapy. Leopold, a past chairman of the American Board of Ophthalmology, also was a professor and chairman of the ophthalmology department at UC Irvine, the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York City and the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Harvey A. Brown of Rancho Palos Verdes has been reelected to a three-year term on the board of directors of the Southern California Permanente Medical Group, which provides care to members of the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan. Brown is in the ophthalmology department at Kaiser Permanente's Harbor City Medical Center.

A new clinic for treating eye disorders will be built on the UC Irvine campus as a result of a $250,000 donation from the Lon V. Smith Foundation. Smith, who died in 1979, was an executive with Superior Oil Co. He and and his wife owned an 11-acre seaside estate beside Emerald Bay in the Laguna Beach area. The sale of that estate, called Smithcliffs, provided funds for the donation.

An excess of an amino acid might cause the eye damage and blindness to a study that counters prevailing beliefs about the disease. In a six-year study of 26 people with glaucoma, researchers found that they had twice the normal amount of glutamate in their eyes. Their study was published in the March issue of the American Medical Assn.'s Archives of Ophthalmology.